Playing Stories, Reading Games: Understanding the Specificity of Electronic Literature and Computer Games

On Wednesday 5th December between 15.15 and 17:00 HUMlab Post-Doc fellow Jan Van Looy will hold a teaching seminar in HUMlab for the Institutionen för litteraturvetenskap och nordiska språk with the title “Playing Stories, Reading Games: Understanding the Specificity of Electronic Literature and Computer Games”.

Jan van Looy says of the seminar: “It will deal with the question of how to distinguish between electronic literature and computer games while both are ‘accessed’ using a computer and both ‘recount’ fictional events. I will lay out an analytical framework using the concepts of ’emergent narrative’ and ‘introjection’.”

The readings for the seminar are two relevant excerpts from Jan Van Looy’s PhD thesis, “The Promise of Perfection: A Cultural Perspective on the Shapping of Computer Simulation and games” (Leuven, 2006). Copies of these excepts can be collected from the seminar shelf in room F203 in the Humanities building. Those who are interested can buy a copy of the thesis from Jan at the seminar (320 pages in A 5-format, price 125 SEK).